


You’ll Never Run Away From You

by Lucky107



Series: In the Ghetto [8]
Category: Mafia (Video Games)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Racism, Self-Acceptance, Self-Destruction, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 14:32:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9611648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky107/pseuds/Lucky107
Summary: Word is that Irish Point ain’t Irish no more.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Kicks - Paul Revere & The Raiders - 1966

It's been a week since Briana's heard a word from Daniel and Nicole.  
  
News of the attack spread like wildfire through the underbelly of Pointe Verdun: Thomas Burke was minding his own when he was ambushed by a handful of dago fucks who really let him have it. There was no information about his condition except that he was alive when the ambulance arrived, but word is that Irish Point ain't Irish no more.  
  
When Daniel knocks on Briana's door with a frantic and unsteady hand, concern leaves little room for rational thought. Something is definitely wrong: she almost doesn't recognize him with his scruffy face and sunken eyes.  
  
"Daniel?"  
  
"Quaaludes."  
  
Briana ushers him inside and closes - locks - the door at her back. "You mind tellin' me just what the fuck's going on?"  
  
"Marcano," he says, an unfamiliar stutter in his speech. "Sent some men after Da - some 'Butcher' or another to reclaim Pointe Verdun. Nearly killed the ol' bastard, you know. I've been holed up at Nicki's since the attack, God forbid they come after her, and tryin'a stay low. I just had to come an' see you."  
  
He wrings his shaking hands as he explains the magnitude of the situation and he paces the minimal floor space in a fit of compulsive unrest.  
  
"I _really_ need a hit."  
  
Briana, reluctant to comply with his request for drugs, gestures to the stiff old motel mattress instead. "Sit down a minute and I'll run you a glass of water."  
  
Daniel does so, albeit gingerly. "I ain't no coward, B."  
  
 _Fear_.  
  
Fear and self-loathing fight for dominance in his dark, troubled eyes and for the first time in three years Briana feels afraid in Daniel's presence. But she doesn't fear for herself.  
  
For all the time she's known Daniel Burke, 'coward' is not the word she would use to describe him - and given what she can make of the attack, she certainly wouldn't start calling him one now. What happened to Thomas Burke was more than just a demonstration of power: it was barbarianism at the hands of an animal.  
  
So, Briana returns with a glass of water and no pills, taking a tentative seat at his side on the mattress. "You need to _talk_ to me, Danny. Straight."  
  
"Damn it, B—!" He hollers and he slaps the glass right out of Briana's hand.  
  
He sets right back to his pacing like he's gone stir-crazy. All of the shock and realization of his father's attack is on the verge of materializing as tears, so he doesn't even realize that he's struck her until he catches a glimpse of her soaked in water.  
  
Daniel's never hit Briana before - never hit anyone, for that matter - and words that lack a voice die on his trembling lips.  
  
 _Sorry_ would be an adequate start, but he reclaims his seat at her side and stammers, "B, I—"  
  
"Shh," she whispers, finding her own voice to be thick with tears.  
  
Briana welcomes Daniel into her arms and he hugs her with the desperation of a frightened child. They cling to one another as they attempt to make sense of their fucked up world and it isn't long before Daniel finally lets himself go.  
  
When he had first learned that his father was in the hospital after the attack, his immediate concern was ensuring Nicole's safety. If Sal Marcano really gave control of Pointe Verdun to Roman Barbieri and his men, it put the already-marginalized Irish population of New Bordeaux at risk.  
  
The idea of Barbieri so much as laying a hand on Nicole was what drove Daniel's moonshine-addled week of self-destruction until, finally, something snapped.  
  
He couldn't do it anymore: the anxiety and the paranoia were crippling.  
  
Some part of him wanted to believe that Briana would encourage him to chase this life of self-destruction and self-pity by supplying him with more Quaaludes, but another part of him knew that she would always be his rock. Briana was the one person he could count on to weigh him down when he threatened to float away on a steady diet of pills.  
  
Briana rocks Daniel gently to the slow rhythm of the radio, running her fingers through his messy hair as he cries into her shoulder unabashedly.


End file.
